NEAR drops 7.6 percent as chip stocks drag the Nasdaq: can $4.83 hold?

NEAR Protocol is trading at $4.91 in the early hours of Friday, October 23, 2026. That is 7.57 percent below the level of 24 hours earlier, while Bitcoin lost 3.30 percent and Ether 3.31 percent over the same period. The trigger does not sit inside the NEAR blockchain but on the stock market: technology and chip stocks fell on Wall Street, oil held above $111 a barrel, and money moved out of risky assets. NEAR is marketed as a blockchain for AI applications, which ties it to precisely the trend that turned on Thursday.